Shoppers 'vote with wallets' as Aldi tops survey

And although Waitrose shoppers complimented the upmarket chain's "top quality produce" and helpful staff, overall customers did not believe the supermarket offered good value for money.

A Sainsbury's spokeswoman said it was "confused by the methodology" used to create the rankings, pointing out that its stores had outperformed the top-ranked in-store supermarket in the star ratings system on measures such as store appearance, queuing time, staff availability and range of products and had matched it on quality of own-label products and fresh products. The chains are scored on customer satisfaction and whether they would recommend the store to a friend.

The larger supermarkets did worse off in the survey, with Sainsbury's (LON: SBRY) coming last of the nine.

"With food costs rising it seems as though shoppers have felt the pinch and are voting with their feet and wallets".

This was largely down to a two-star rating Waitrose was given for value for money, compared to Aldi's five.

Tesco (LON:TSCO) is working on a plan for a new discount grocery chain to take on Aldi and Lidl, The Sunday Times has revealed.

The news comes as Tesco continues to feel pressure from Aldi and Lidl, with the latest Kantar data showing earlier this month that the blue-chip's grocer market share had continued to decline in the 12 weeks to January 28, having dipped 0.3 percentage points to 27.8 percent.

Iceland managing director Nigel Broadhurst said: "We are naturally delighted to have been recognised once again as Britain's best online store in the annual Which? supermarket survey".